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Medieval Mosque Shows Amazing Math Discovery
Discover Magazine ^
| 01.09.2008
| John Bohannon
Posted on 01/17/2008 7:24:05 AM PST by forkinsocket
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Contains video.
To: SunkenCiv
2
posted on
01/17/2008 7:25:44 AM PST
by
CholeraJoe
(Hey McCain! How about a game of solitaire? Betcha can't find the Queen of Diamonds.)
To: forkinsocket
To bad they’ve gone backward.
To: forkinsocket
I think they copied mathematics from the Persians
To: CrazyJoeDivola
"To bad theyve gone backward."
Nonsense, now please go to your nearest mosque so that you can be decapitated. Sincerely, the religion of peace. /sarc
5
posted on
01/17/2008 7:29:11 AM PST
by
rednesss
(Fred Thompson - 2008)
To: forkinsocket
built in 1453Helen Thomas was the on-the-scene reporter.
6
posted on
01/17/2008 7:29:31 AM PST
by
TruthShallSetYouFree
(Abortion is to family planning what bankruptcy is to financial planning.)
To: forkinsocket
I’m sure they demolished the existing structure, stole the pattern and built their mosque over it.
To: forkinsocket
A mathematical discovery ought to have some established justification in order for it to be meaningful. Putting down tiles in a pattern and walking away is perhaps interesting, but I'm not sure I find it significant.
Also, looking for a non-repeating series is hard -- but I'm sure it gets a lot easier if you're willing to overlook the 11 flaws in the series.
8
posted on
01/17/2008 7:30:50 AM PST
by
ClearCase_guy
(The broken wall, the burning roof and tower. And Agamemnon dead.)
To: stainlessbanner
9
posted on
01/17/2008 7:30:54 AM PST
by
Sacajaweau
("The Cracker" will be renamed "The Crapper")
To: forkinsocket
I wonder if this is like the Bible Codes and that sort of thing - if you look for patterns you eventually find them - and then you explain away any discrepancies when they don’t fit your theory.
To: forkinsocket
Islam is such a blight on the whole world that extolling any contributions it may have made in the past is like putting lipstick on a pig.
11
posted on
01/17/2008 7:35:53 AM PST
by
TexasRepublic
(Islam is a mental disorder)
To: forkinsocket
I am confused: It says mosques, but then it states that only one mosque “passed the test”. Then there is this: “Among the 3,700 tiles Lu and Steinhardt mapped, there are only 11 tiny flaws, tiles placed in the wrong orientation. Lu argues that these are accidents possibly introduced during centuries of repair. Art historians always suspected there must be something more to these patterns, says Tom Lentz, director of Harvard University Art Museums, but they were never examined with this kind of scientific rigor.
Is it several mosques show this “ability” or one mosque?
Are these 11 flaws in the one mosque that “passed the test”?
If they are, why should they be ignored?
12
posted on
01/17/2008 7:36:46 AM PST
by
sticker
To: forkinsocket
BS. Mooselimbs have never discovered anything. Ever.
Besides, you don’t get credit for a discovery in math unless it’s accompanied by a proof. In other words, you have to know what you’re doing. You cannot simply be a stupid monkey with a paintbrush.
13
posted on
01/17/2008 7:37:17 AM PST
by
LibWhacker
(Democrats are phony Americans)
To: TruthShallSetYouFree
14
posted on
01/17/2008 7:39:29 AM PST
by
cvq3842
To: forkinsocket
And it’s been all downhill for them ever since...
To: sticker
Are these 11 flaws in the one mosque that passed the test?Yes. Lu claims that the flaws are due to the repair accidents.
To: forkinsocket
This might already be in GGG inventory, I read about it last year. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17282496/ Geometry feat cloaked in medieval Islamic tile Researcher: Quasicrystals mastered centuries before West explained them
17
posted on
01/17/2008 7:41:26 AM PST
by
BGHater
('A Nation's best defense is an educated citizenry'-Thomas Jefferson)
To: forkinsocket
The problem with this is that it was not a "mathematical discovery" but simply tile makers experimenting with patterns that they found attractive.
There are thousands or more of possible tile shapes that can generate a "quasicrystal" or "aperiodic tiling" or "Penrose tiling."
In fact, any decagon-shaped tile that overlaps two ways generates a quasicrystal pattern.
So, of the millions of mosaics made by Muslim floor tilers over an 800 year period, exactly one decided to use a standard Muslim girih decagon with a slightly different decorative flourish that happened to generate a quasicrystal.
This was not the work of an Islamic mathematician coming up with an ingenious equation which he then used to create the tiles. It was the work of an artisan who liked making fancy-looking tiles, and this particular one randomly happened to have an interesting property.
There is no record that any Muslim even noticed this pattern as being extraordinary in any way other than its attractiveness or that it had any mathematical import.
18
posted on
01/17/2008 7:43:09 AM PST
by
wideawake
(Why is it that those who call themselves Constitutionalists know the least about the Constitution?)
To: forkinsocket
sounds like Lu did what someone posted earlier: He decided what the results would be and then forced the evidence to produce said results
19
posted on
01/17/2008 7:44:05 AM PST
by
sticker
To: cvq3842
To be perfectly fair, Ms. Thomas was just a cub reporter at the time.
20
posted on
01/17/2008 7:44:50 AM PST
by
TruthShallSetYouFree
(Abortion is to family planning what bankruptcy is to financial planning.)
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